Broad Institute: Bringing Genomics to Real-World Medicine

Abstract

Only about 10% of the Institute’s funding derives from the original Broad gift. “That 10% is intentionally used to fund otherwise hard-to-fund research, the truest earliest research with no preliminary results based on good ideas,” says Schreiber. “We encourage the growth of the Broad by asking for proposals for science that is very high risk but, if successful, would transform science and society.” These projects are funded initially only for 12 months. The initial data produced are expected to enable the projects to generate their own sustaining funding. Ninety percent of the institute’s funding comes from the government, philanthropic sources, and nonprofit institutions, and this funding supports more advanced science through the peer-review process. The bulk of that 90% also supports the scientific platforms.“It is a fantastic time to do important work in medical illness with a genetic basis,” says Scolnick. “I sensed that from the outside, but I now am really impressed that we are in a unique time to be able to apply modern human genetics to medical disease. Eric Lander wants the Broad to make seminal discoveries about currently very poorly understood diseases. He has a vision of what can be done to understand really difficult medical diseases with a genetic basis that is inspiring.”